


Father, Son and Holy Spirit

by cassiemortmain



Category: Poldark (TV 2015), Poldark - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, First Love, Second Chances
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-06-29 02:21:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15719955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassiemortmain/pseuds/cassiemortmain
Summary: "Tis a wishing well too, they say.  What you do is... dip your right hand in the water, saying 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit', and then your wish is granted."My version of what might have happened after the end of Season 4 of Poldark.  Will the wishes of Morwenna and Drake finally come true?





	1. Chapter 1

Morwenna's certain she will feel this way forever.

Her soul tainted, her body numb, shrinking from all human contact.  Haunted by her hellish marriage, her sanity barely intact.

But when Drake catches up to her that day on the cliff top, she stops to listen.  For one simple reason.

She loves him.  To her dying breath.

Even after everything she has suffered, the connection between them endures.

His promise allows her to hope that another kind of life might be possible.  A life shared with a truly good man, a man who loves her for herself and wants only to be with her.

So she agrees to marry him.

***

On their wedding day, they're coming out of the church, her arm in his.  They stop to look at each other and she does something which surprises her.

She stands on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.

His face shines with wonder and he tucks his hand over hers as they share a smile.  Then, they walk through a shower of white petals into their new life together.

The smiles stay on their faces as they greet the small group of well-wishers who have come to send them on their way.  Sunlight streams down on them both, a blessed light that finds its way even into the darkest corners of her heart.

***

Time goes by, the time she needs.

His only care is for her happiness, and he does everything in his power to make her feel loved, safe, protected.  Never reaching for her, never asking her for anything.  Keeping his promise, as she always knew he would.

Their married life falls into a comfortable routine. 

Every day but Sunday, he works hard in the forge, focusing on providing for her, while she learns to care for their home, each task a simple pleasure.  Most evenings, they take a walk together, going a little further each time.  Each night, she kisses his cheek and they share a brief hug before she leaves him by the fire and goes to sleep in the bedroom, alone.

Gradually, so slowly she barely notices it happening – she starts to heal.

The first tiny seed that took root in her soul that day on the cliff top, the seed that sent out a green shoot on the day of their wedding, is ready to bloom.

***

One evening, as Morwenna tidies away the dinner things, Drake gets up to do his usual round – checking the door, closing the shutters, making their home ready for the quiet hours of night.

She goes to take a seat in her armchair by the fire, as she always does.  But then she changes her mind.

Instead, she walks over to the couch that lies near the hearth, the couch he sleeps on every night, and sits down on it.

“Drake…would you like to sit here with me?”

He can barely hide the delight on his face as he crosses the room and takes his place beside her.

She slides towards him, letting their legs touch, leaning into his shoulder.  He's holding his breath, waiting for her to tell him what she wants, so she takes his arm and wraps it around her.

She can feel him starting to relax, his hand settling on her hip, as they stare together into the glimmering fire.  There is such a dreamy communion between them, neither feels the need to talk.

After a while, she starts yawning in spite of herself, but she doesn't want to leave him.

So as they stand up, she asks him a question.  “Would you like to sleep beside me tonight?  Share my bed?”

“Are you sure, Morwenna?  I don’t want to…”

“Yes, I’m sure.  I’m asking you, I want you to.  Give me a moment or two and then please… come.”

She walks away from him, turning to give him a smile over her shoulder before entering the bedroom.

***

She gets ready for sleep, as she always does.  Changing into her nightgown, turning down the quilt, blowing out the candle.

But something is different.  Tonight, she's waiting for him to join her.

In a few minutes, Drake comes into the moonlit room, an uncertain look on his face.

“Please, it’s all right.  Come here.”

“Are you really sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.  Truly.”

Shyly, he turns his back, quickly takes off his outer clothes, lies down in the bed beside her.

Morwenna moves towards him, resting her head on his shoulder, taking his hand to pull his arm around her again.

He begins to tell her a story about his day and his gentle humour soon has her smiling.  As they talk, she snuggles closer to him, resting her hand on his chest.  Finding a quiet intimacy in his embrace that she’s never known before.

“Oh my love… happy am I to hold my wife in my arms,” he murmurs.

“And I’m happy to be here, with my husband."

_My one true husband..._

She reaches up to put a hand on his cheek, gently guides his face down to hers.

They kiss, closed-mouthed, breathing each other in.

Until that moment, she believes she will never want to kiss anyone again.  But now… well, it just feels so _right_.

With him, the man she has loved for so long.  The man who stayed true to her during their years apart, in spite of overwhelming odds.  The man whose loving care has begun to nurse her spirit back to health in a way she thought to be impossible.

Tears well up, overflowing, streaming down her face as their lips part.  Bittersweet tears, tears mourning for the cruel, wasted years that kept them apart, tears cut through with hope for what might be yet to come.

And then she's crying.  Full-blown crying, shoulders heaving, breath gasping.  For a long time, she can't stop.

Drake holds her gently all the while, stroking her hair, whispering to her - "I'm here, I'm here.  Let it out, my love.  I'm not going anywhere."

Finally, she is able to calm the storm.  As she quietens, he speaks.

"Can I do anything?  If you want to... talk...?"

"One day, I'll tell you.  Not now though, not tonight.... You know I love you, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do.  And I love 'ee too, so very much.  More than ever.”

“Then let’s sleep here, together.”

He presses his lips softly to the top of her head.  “Yes, my love.  Let’s sleep.”

And that night Morwenna sleeps more soundly than she had done for many years, her cheek pillowed on her husband’s chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first Drawenna fic - I love these two so much, and their reunion and marriage at the end of season 4 made me so happy, I just had to try and write something about what could come next for them. Hope to post the next chapter soon!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has read the first chapter of this new fic.
> 
> This time, Morwenna tells Drake her heartbreaking story...

The next night, she invites him to lie beside her again.  To share an embrace, a goodnight kiss, to fall asleep together.

And the next night.  And the next.

One day, she wakes up knowing this is how she wants things to be from now on. So when she comes out of the bedroom, she walks straight over to the couch by the fire.

Picking up the neat bundle of bedding that lies there – a rough blanket or two, a pillow – she crosses to the cupboard to put it away.  Then she turns back to him.

His face is a picture of surprise. “Morwenna…”

“It’s our room now, Drake.  Our bed.  You don’t need to sleep out here any more.”

The smile that nearly splits his face in half moves her so much, she feels tears behind her eyes.  Rather than letting them fall, she smiles back at him.

"What would you like for breakfast?"

***

Not long after, she realises – she needs to tell him.  What she has been through.  So that he can understand her, the way she is now, a little more.

She gestures him over to the couch as usual after dinner.  “Would you sit there?”

Instead of sitting next to him, as she’s become accustomed to doing, she lies down and puts her head in his lap.  Somehow, she knows it will be easier to get the words out when she isn't looking at him.

“I want to talk, to tell you… can I?"

“My love, you can tell me... anything you want, I’m here,” he says. 

Morwenna takes Drake's hand in hers.  Staring into the flames, she starts to speak.  It is the beginning of a story that lasts several evenings.  

The story of how _he_ treated her.

Even on their wedding night... cold, aggressive, selfish.  Treating her purely as a possession, to be used as he desired without any consideration of her feelings.

At first, she had lain there, accepting it as her duty as a wife, while hating it, hating him, every moment.  Swiftly coming to loathe and despise him more than she’d ever dreamed possible.

Once she fell pregnant, she could not lie there any more.  So she pushed him away, using their unborn child as an excuse.  Leaving him to turn to her sister.

After she had given birth, he tried to return to her bed far too soon, as always mindful only of his own needs.  She used the only weapon she had to keep him away, by making threats against her own son...

The pain of remembering is awful.  She cries sometimes, and Drake soothes her.  From time to time, she can hear from his voice that he is struggling to hold back his own tears.

But somehow she knows that not going on would be even worse.

So she's determined to finish. Doing her best to tell him everything, trying to hold nothing back.

_Except one thing.  The one thing I cannot ever tell him._

She clasps her husband's hand even tighter as she tells him the rest of her story...

The way  _he_  asked doctors to declare her insane, so he could be free of her.  And when that failed, he took her child away, which left her powerless to stop him.

And she could not.  Even until the very day he died.  

Leaving her free by law, still bound in every other way.  Caught fast in snares of horror and despair, she threw away the symbol of the happiness she thought was lost to her forever.

***

When she's done, she composes herself for a few minutes before sitting up to look at him.

"You know the rest..."

He has tears on his lashes.  “Oh, Morwenna… If only I could have helped you, somehow.  If only I’d known…”

“But what could you have done?  Killed him, been hanged yourself?”

“My love, I never imagined… how could… I’m sorry, it’s not my pain.  What I feel doesn't matter...”  

He dashes the tears away with one hand and turns towards the fire.  “What he did to you, what he’s still doing… At least we can be sure of one thing.  The torments of hell are reserved for men like him.”

“You really believe that?”

“Oh yes, I’m certain of it." He looks back at her.  "Sam could explain it better than I, but I’m sure.  He’ll suffer for eternity…”  

Then he stops himself.  “I shouldn’t have, I… know you suffer still, I didn’t mean…”

“It’s all right, Drake,” she says, reaching to take his hand again.  “I know what you were trying to say.”

The look he gives her then is like a window into the past.

It is the same look he gave her that day on the beach, the day he knew for the first time that she wanted him to kiss her.  A look she's never forgotten, even after all these long, desolate years.

Then he drops his gaze.  “I shouldn’t…. I’m sorry, I should not look at you like that.  It’s not right.  I know that eyes can ask, too, as much as words.  And I promised…”

“You don’t need to apologise.  I… like that look of yours.  It reminds me of a time, a time in our lives which I thought could never return…”

He picks up on her word immediately.  “You _thought_?  Do ‘ee not mean you _think_?”  His eyes are alight now.

She hesitates, looks down, stares at their joined hands.  “I do not know.  Perhaps… it’s possible, one day, things could be different.”

She lifts her eyes again, letting them lock with his.  It's more intimate between them in this moment than at any other time in their marriage, and it makes her catch her breath.

Suddenly, she's aware of how close his body is to hers, of the breadth of his shoulders, the line of his jaw.  She can _feel_ his longing for her, and how he's holding himself back as hard as he can. 

And for the briefest moment, she's almost the girl she used to be.  Eager, innocent, full of hope and joy.

It's as if that girl brushes past her in the crowd, her step light, her hair windblown.  Making her way to meet the boy she loves beyond measure, as he loves her.

The boy who's now a man grown, and her husband.

***

When she wakes up the next day, he has already gone.  She dresses quickly and comes out to look for him.

There is a note on the table, and a small paper parcel.

“My Morwenna, I could not bear to wake you.  You looked so peaceful and you need your rest.

I've been saving this for the right moment to give it to you.  I hope that is today.

All my love, Drake.”

She unwraps the paper with trembling hands.

Inside is a shell bracelet.


End file.
